The Clock is Ticking
by CelticGames4
Summary: The nightmares seem to send me a message. And I can't believe I wasted all my time in fear... A one-shot about Gloss and sleep, from a forum prompt. R&R, please!


**DISTRICT ONE: GLOSS**

You know something I love? Sleep.

It's almost as good as being drunk. Because, when you sleep, nobody makes you do anything that you don't want to do.

If I can crash on my bed and close my eyes, everybody leaves me alone.

Sometimes, it's dangerous: but I say, it can be good, too.

There are only a couple people that know when I'm faking it, and I wouldn't have it any other way. Those people also happen to be my best friends.

Cashmere, my sister, knows me inside and out. She's always known me like that. She's learned to pick out when I'm lying, when I'm hiding something, and now, when I'm faking anything.

It's not just sleep; it's smiling, it's enthusiasm, it's everything about myself that the dickhead of a President makes me lie about.

My sister was last year's Victor, and I can trust her with… Well… Pretty much everything. There's nothing I haven't told her, and I like it that way.

The other person is my best friend and brother from another mother, Marvel.

I'm 18 years old and he's only 10, but the kid knows me better than pretty much anyone I know. The only thing about Marvel is that he will never understand _why _I have all these new habits, so he thinks it's all a game.

He likes to run in the room and say, "You're _awake_, Gloss!"

And I sit up and pretend to laugh.

The thing about this all of this is that, like every Victor, I end up having nightmares. Lucky for me, it's not as often as I thought it'd be.

I really don't like saying it out loud. I don't like thinking it. I'm 18; I've survived the worst of the worst in that Arena! I can't still be having nightmares like a five-year old!

But, soon, I find that the other Victors have them, too.

It was the night after my big Victory tour was finally over. I find myself slowly giving in to my nightmarish world.

"_Oh… Glossy!" My old ally and friend Skipper smiles at me like the Cheshire Cat._

"_What the hell do you want? You're dead!"_

"_You think I'm dead. But I'll be alive in your thoughts forever!" _

"_Just leave me alone! I'm from District 1! I won, you lost!"_

"_True, true, true. But do you really want all that blood on your hands? Do you?"_

"_B-b-blood?" I feel my hands growing sticky._

"_Good luck with that one!" The little girl from 6 who got 3__rd__ place twirls around and giggles, "Good luck avenging meeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"_

_Marvel starts screaming and I immediately run to find him. "MARVEL!"_

"_The clock is ticking," the towering 11 boy grins at me, "You better run!"_

"_MARVEL!"_

"_Gloss!" he screams back at me. "Gloss!"_

"_The clock is ticking," the 5 girl hisses in my ear, followed by the 11 girl and the 4 girl, all at once._

"_The clock is ticking, ticking, ticking, ticking!"_

"_GLOSS!" he screams._

_I take his hand and sigh. Then he starts sliding off._

"_The blood's on your hands, Glossy! And it's taking the kid with you!" The runner-up to me, the little 12 girl, giggles quietly and then disappears._

_Marvel's scream wakes me up._

"You're _awake, _Gloss! 'Nd I wasn't even scared when you screamed."

A laugh bubbles from my throat. The cruel irony just makes me laugh.

I think my dreams teach me lessons.

As much as I hate the nightmares, I still remember the voices of those who have fallen.

And, you know, as much as I can barely stand to face it, I often think about my dream that night.

"_The clock is ticking." _

I didn't really know what it meant when I was 18 and oblivious. I mean, in the dream, the time was ticking for me to save a friend; I saw that for sure. But, just a little while back, I realized the hidden message behind it.

They were talking about _my_ clock.

_My _time to make a difference.

They didn't die for nothing. They didn't die for me to spend my time drunk and rambling and feeling sorry for myself.

They died so that I could make a difference.

The clock is ticking for me to change the world.


End file.
